Carbs & Mortality: Thoughts on the Recent Study

[CoastWatcher]

Recently, a group of researchers published a series of papers on the relationship between macronutrient intake and certain health outcomes (http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(17)32252-3/fulltext).

• The study that caused the most controversy investigated the associations between intake of macronutrients carbs, proteins, and fats and two outcomes: cardiovascular disease and mortality.
• Over 135,000 people between 35 and 70 years of age, living in 18 low-income, middle-income, and high-income countries on five continents were followed. The cohort was weighted more toward middle-income and low-income countries — which is important because those areas are typically understudied. The great diversity of its cohort made this study one of the first of its kind.

The authors looked at two primary outcomes (total mortality and major cardiovascular events) and four secondary outcomes (heart attacks, strokes, cardiovascular disease mortality, and non-cardiovascular disease mortality).

• The researchers found a statistically significant positive association between carbohydrate intake and total mortality.
• In general, the higher the carbohydrate intake, the higher the rates of all-cause mortality and non-cardiovascular disease mortality, at any point in time. Those trends were found in both Asian and non-Asian regions, but were significant only in non-Asian regions.

However, positive associations were not observed between carbohydrate intake and four outcomes: strokes, heart attacks, major cardiovascular diseases, and cardiovascular disease mortality.

No positive association was found, however, between higher intakes of carbohydrates and either strokes, heart attacks, major cardiovascular disease, or cardiovascular disease mortality — which is important because outcomes like those are a lot more specific than total mortality risk or non-cardiovascular disease risk.

The value of a large, observational study of this sort can not be denied. Nonetheless, further work is warranted before specific conclusions can be drawn.

Examine.com, 19 September 2017
https://examine.com/nutrition/do-hi...ter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=blog-091917

 

[madman]

I still think there is a big misconception that a carb is carb as processed carbs/ simple sugars act differently in the body upon insulin/other blood markers as oppose to low g.i. complex carbs whether fibrous/starchy from natural whole unprocessed foods. Coast your inbox full?

 

[CoastWatcher]

I still think there is a big misconception that a carb is carb as processed carbs/ simple sugars act differently in the body upon insulin/other blood markers as oppose to low g.i. complex carbs whether fibrous/starchy from natural whole unprocessed foods. Coast your inbox full?

Cleared it out.